To get our fright on, it is estimated that Americans will spend between $6.9 billion and $8 billion on Halloween festivities this year. U.S. News and World Report reports that the average participant will spend $80 which is up from the $72 spent on Halloween for 2012.

Does that mean that cancer isn’t scary enough so we have to supplement the frights with Halloween spending?

We think it shows the financial power of the public.

The federal government uses our tax dollars to fund the NIH and NCI but the best that they can come up with is $5.6 billion dollars. Note that this is in spite of the Obama-Biden Plan to Combat Cancer in which they promised in September of 2008 to double the funding for cancer research within 5 years. We have yet to find any proof that the budget has doubled.

If all the Americans that participated in Halloween were to give the average of $80 a year to fund cancer research then we would be able to double the funding provided by the NIH. Our point being is that to many people $80 a year or $6.67 a month isn’t an enormous amount of money. In fact, most people would feel that even if they gave $10 a month to cancer research or to a charity that helps reduce the burden of cancer that it wouldn’t amount to much.

In fact, that is not the case. Giving $10 a month and encouraging your ghoulish friends to do the same can add up and make a huge different. Every little bit helps but don’t skip out on the Halloween candy to make a donation towards cancer because we don’t want the American Dental Association to get angry at us for reducing the rate of caries.